Join us for another Poolside Performance at Cranbrook Art Museum, exploring experimental music, movement, and mark-making!
Beneath the waves of Abu Qir Bay lies the sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion. Once a vibrant hub of ancient Egyptian and Greek life, the city now rests quietly on the seafloor. Small ocean grasses sway between toppled columns, and brightly colored fish weave through the remnants of forgotten gods. Statues sit on crumbling thrones, slowly dissolving into the sea, rejoining the natural world. Clams nestle in the cracks between Greek ostraca and Egyptian tablets, as the walls of the city blur into the ocean floor.
This is the world Zekkereya El-Magharbel invites you to imagine through sound.
Performing alongside Michael Malis and JRGotTheHiTS in the lush summer setting of Cranbrook Art Museum’s peristyle, El-Magharbel presents a concert inspired by the submerged legacy of ancient Egypt. The ensemble explores the sonic echoes between the Nile River and the Mediterranean Sea, blending melodies and rhythms from the surrounding regions to spark the imagination.
This immersive performance will feature:
- Zekkereya El-Magharbel – trombone and electronics
- Michael Malis – accordion, keyboard, and electronics
- JRGotTheHiTS – drum set, percussion, and electronics
This event is free and open to all! Come early to see our summer exhibition, Eventually Everything Connects: Mid-Century Modern Design in the US. Performance will be held rain or shine.
About the Artists:
Zekkereya is a trombonist, visual artist, educator, and theorist from Los Angeles, CA. They’ve been a member of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra for over a decade and have worked with such luminaries as Angel Bat Dawid, Jaimie Branch, Moor Mother, Kierra Sheard, Wendell Harrison, Amir El Saffar, Tyshawn Sorey, Wendy Eisenberg, and many others. Their current work involves researching traditions from across Northern Africa and drawing parallels with Great Black Music, a homegrown genre stateside.
Michael Malis is a composer, pianist, and music educator based in Detroit, MI. Noted for his “jaw-dropping display of improvisational power” (All About Jazz), Malis is a recipient of the Greek America Foundation’s 40 under 40 award. He has taught at the University of Michigan and Interlochen Arts Academy, and is now a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Michigan. As a recording artist, he has released 13 albums. His music has been described as “downright transcendental” (Maggot Brain Magazine) and “uncommonly mature” (Detroit Free Press). He was noted as “among the most compelling Detroit jazz musicians of his generation” (Jazz From Detroit, University of Michigan Press). His compositions have been performed across the United States, including at Harvard University, the University of Maryland, The Owl (Brooklyn), and Orchestral Hall (Detroit).
Divine restraint and manifest destiny have become the definitive marks of JRGotTheHiTS’ career as an artist, producer, and composer. JRGotTheHiTS channels his upbringing in a family of musicians and ministers (as well as ancestral wisdom), into layered experiences that blend seamlessly across genre or platform. Following in the tradition of his bloodline, he fuses music and spirituality into creative works that raise the consciousness of listeners and collaborators without sacrificing showmanship. Instead, he satisfies his taste for organic sounds that induce nostalgic warmth and timeless reverence by enlisting the help of fellow musicians that comprise the loose collective MASTER STUDENT & publishing company AGiLE SOCiETY.
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